Financial Transparency Coalition

WASHINGTON, DC – Global Witness is calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) not to cave in to industry pressure and to issue effective regulations to combat the trade in conflict minerals. The call comes on the day of a crucial SEC roundtable and in the face of aggressive industry lobbying aimed at making the new rules weak and ineffective.

Teodoro Nguema Obiang has controlled Equatorial Guineasince he executed his uncle in a bloody coup d’état in 1979. Equatorial Guinea is a country in Middle Africa on the coast. It is one of the smallest and wealthiest countries in the continent, in large part because it holds Africa’s largest oil reserves. Yet the wealth is extremely concentrated in the hands of the government and the ruling elite. As a result over 75% of the population lives below $2 per day, 35% of its citizens do not live past the age of 40, and nearly 60%...

International oil companies such as the U.S. giant Chevron are beginning exploration off of Liberia’s coastline. However, this new research by Global Witness and Liberian Oil and Gas Initiative (LOGI)¹ suggests that while Liberia has come a long way from the devastating set of resource-financed civil wars that claimed the lives of 250,000 people between 1989 and 2003, serious governance problems persist, and the warning signs for the emerging oil sector are stark. Curse or Cure? How oil can boost or break Liberia’s post-war recovery shows that even before a discovery is made, there are deep-seated problems in Liberia’s oil sector: government officials and at least one company...

LONDON/MONROVIA – Far-reaching reforms of Liberia’s oil sector are urgently needed if its population is to benefit from future oil discoveries, says a report released today by Global Witness (1) and the Liberian Oil and Gas Initiative (LOGI) (2). As the country heads to the polls in October, and with major oil companies such as US giant Chevron trying to find oil in Liberia, these reforms must be a priority for any new government.